Report: Gun shop had history of violations

Associated Press

Associated Press

Updated 7:09 am, Thursday, April 11, 2013

In this Dec. 20, 2012 photo, law enforcement officials stand outside Riverview Gun Sales, as authorities raid the store in East Windsor, Conn. The shop, which sold a gun to Nancy Lanza, mother of Newtown school shooter Adam Lanza, had its federal firearms license revoked by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Photo: Jessica Hill

In this Dec. 20, 2012 photo, law enforcement officials stand...

EAST WINDSOR, CT - DECEMBER 21: Shawn Cavana, a member of the NRA who says he personally owns an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, looks into the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop while gun shopping with friends on December 21, 2012 in East Windsor, Connecticut. According to the Hartford Courant, sources investigating the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown have said the Bushmaster rifle used by the gunman Adam Lanza was legally purchased at the shop by his mother Nancy Lanza. The Courant also reports that records show the guns used in a previous mass shooting in Connecticut in 2010, where Omar Thornton killed eight people and himself at Hartford Distributers Inc, were also purchased at Riverview Gun Sales. On Thursday agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and local police raided and closed the gun shop. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Photo: John Moore, Getty Images

EAST WINDSOR, CT - DECEMBER 21: Shawn Cavana, a member of the NRA...

A customer looks into the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop on December 21, 2012 in East Windsor, Connecticut. According to the Hartford Courant, sources investigating the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown have said the Bushmaster rifle used by the gunman Adam Lanza was legally purchased at the shop by his mother Nancy Lanza. The Courant also reports that records show the guns used in a previous mass shooting in Connecticut in 2010, where Omar Thornton killed eight people and himself at Hartford Distributers Inc, were also purchased at Riverview Gun Sales. On Thursday agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and local police raided and closed the gun shop.

Photo: John Moore, Getty Images

A customer looks into the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop on...

A sign advertises ammunition at the Riverview Gun Sales shop on December 21, 2012 in East Windsor, Connecticut. According to the Hartford Courant, sources investigating the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown have said the Bushmaster rifle used by the gunman Adam Lanza was legally purchased at the shop by his mother Nancy Lanza. The Courant also reports that records show the guns used in a previous mass shooting in Connecticut in 2010, where Omar Thornton killed eight people and himself at Hartford Distributers Inc, were also purchased at Riverview Gun Sales. On Thursday agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and local police raided and closed the gun shop.

Photo: John Moore, Getty Images

A sign advertises ammunition at the Riverview Gun Sales shop on...

A customer approaches the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop on December 21, 2012 in East Windsor, Connecticut. According to the Hartford Courant, sources investigating the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown have said the Bushmaster rifle used by the gunman Adam Lanza was legally purchased at the shop by his mother Nancy Lanza. The Courant also reports that records show the guns used in a previous mass shooting in Connecticut in 2010, where Omar Thornton killed eight people and himself at Hartford Distributers Inc, were also purchased at Riverview Gun Sales. On Thursday agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and local police raided and closed the gun shop.

Photo: John Moore, Getty Images

A customer approaches the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop on...

A sign sits atop the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop on December 21, 2012 in East Windsor, Connecticut. According to the Hartford Courant, sources investigating the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown have said the Bushmaster rifle used by the gunman Adam Lanza was legally purchased at the shop by his mother Nancy Lanza. The Courant also reports that records show the guns used in a previous mass shooting in Connecticut in 2010, where Omar Thornton killed eight people and himself at Hartford Distributers Inc, were also purchased at Riverview Gun Sales. On Thursday agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and local police raided and closed the gun shop.

Photo: John Moore, Getty Images

A sign sits atop the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop on December...

A truck advertises the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop on December 21, 2012 in East Windsor, Connecticut. According to the Hartford Courant, sources investigating the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown have said the Bushmaster rifle used by the gunman Adam Lanza was legally purchased at the shop by his mother Nancy Lanza. The Courant also reports that records show the guns used in a previous mass shooting in Connecticut in 2010, where Omar Thornton killed eight people and himself at Hartford Distributers Inc, were also purchased at Riverview Gun Sales. On Thursday agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and local police raided and closed the gun shop.

Photo: John Moore, Getty Images

A truck advertises the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop on December...

A truck advertises the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop on December 21, 2012 in East Windsor, Connecticut. According to the Hartford Courant, sources investigating the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown have said the Bushmaster rifle used by the gunman Adam Lanza was legally purchased at the shop by his mother Nancy Lanza. The Courant also reports that records show the guns used in a previous mass shooting in Connecticut in 2010, where Omar Thornton killed eight people and himself at Hartford Distributers Inc, were also purchased at Riverview Gun Sales. On Thursday agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and local police raided and closed the gun shop.

Photo: John Moore, Getty Images

A truck advertises the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop on December...

A customer leaves after seeing a closed sign on the front door of the Riverview Gun Sales shop on December 21, 2012 in East Windsor, Connecticut. According to the Hartford Courant, sources investigating the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown have said the Bushmaster rifle used by the gunman Adam Lanza was legally purchased at the shop by his mother Nancy Lanza. The Courant also reports that records show the guns used in a previous mass shooting in Connecticut in 2010, where Omar Thornton killed eight people and himself at Hartford Distributers Inc, were also purchased at Riverview Gun Sales. On Thursday agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and local police raided and closed the gun shop.

EAST WINDSOR -- Federal authorities say a Connecticut gun shop that legally sold weapons used in the Newtown school shootings lost its federal firearms license after the December massacre because of hundreds of violations over the past several years.

A document prepared by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives explains why Riverview Gun Sales in East Windsor lost its license. The document was obtained Wednesday by WFSB-TV (http://bit.ly/10VoZU9 ).

Riverview lawyer Rob Altchiler told the TV station that shooter Adam Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, bought the Bushmaster rifle used to kill 20 first-graders and six adults from Riverview, as well as a Sig Sauer handgun found at the school. Altchiler disputed the violations were serious enough to warrant license revocation.

Authorities say the hundreds of violations included guns sales without background checks.